Australia is tightening the leash on social media companies.
According to new legislation introduced in parliament, the Australian government will double the maximum penalty imposed on social media companies that fail to comply with the ban on users under age 16. Per the new rules, companies can be slapped with close to $69 million (99 million Australian dollars) in penalties, far more than the previous $34 million (roughly 50 million Australian dollars).
The government is also proposing to expand the powers of the eSafety Commissioner, the agency in charge of enforcing the ban, by allowing it to compel internal company documents for any legal cases it might bring against platform operators. The eSafety Commissioner is currently investigating potential non-compliance by Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.
“Based on the regular updates I receive from the eSafety Commissioner, it is clear to me that social media platforms are adopting tricks straight out of the big tech playbook and doing the bare minimum to get by,” Australia’s minister for communications, Anika Wells, said in a press release. “Social media platforms are some of the richest and most powerful companies in the world, and we’re serious about holding them to account.”
Back in December, Australia became the first country to enact a landmark social media ban for users under 16. Driven by data and studies showing adverse mental health effects stemming from years of exposure to addictive and harmful social media design and algorithms, teens and children were banned from a list of platforms that includes TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Snapchat, YouTube, Reddit, Kick, and Twitch.
Since then, dozens more governments around the globe have proposed bans inspired by Australia’s crackdown, much to the chagrin of the Trump administration, which has made protecting Silicon Valley interests a key part of its foreign affairs policy. Most recently, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom joined that list. The UK’s ban is set to be more restrictive than Australia’s when it goes into effect next year.
That might be for good reason.
The Australian government has said that more than 5 million accounts have been removed, deactivated, or restricted since the ban went into effect. But still, teens are finding it relatively easy to skirt the ban, whether it be via VPNs or through shockingly simple tricks like drawing a moustache on their face for selfie age-verification scans. The eSafety Commissioner also shared earlier this year that seven out of 10 parents surveyed said their teens were still on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok, despite the ban.
Those stats shaped the government’s recent decision to toughen the rules.
“I’m heartened by the shift in conversation and the global momentum we’ve seen since introducing the social media minimum age, but it’s clear big tech are not doing enough to comply with the law – there are still too many children on social media,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in the press release. “These changes reflect the seriousness with which we take any failure by social media companies to comply with our world-leading law.”
All four of the social media platform operators that are currently under investigation by the Australian eSafety Commissioner are also embroiled in legal controversy in the United States.
A bellwether case claiming that deliberate addictive design choices in social media platforms got kids hooked and exacerbated serious mental health outcomes went to trial in California in March. ByteDance and Snap settled ahead of trial, but Meta and Google were promptly handed a major defeat when the jury ruled that they were liable. That verdict created the legal basis for further litigation, marking a watershed moment that has since enabled thousands more social media addiction lawsuits in California that name ByteDance, Google, Meta, and Snap as defendants.
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